Katamari Forever Eyes-on

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Rolling, rolling, rolling. A PS3 exclusive.

By Ryan Clements

Katamari Damacy was a very special game. Combining the wacky antics of Japanese games with remarkably simple controls, the Katamari franchise has captured gamers' hearts with nothing more than a giant ball of garbage. In Katamari Damacy, players assume the role of the Prince, who must roll up various items into an ever-expanding ball of cluttered madness in order to please the King of (All) the Cosmos, who accidentally destroyed the celestial bodies with his own clumsiness.

Well the Prince is back and is on his way to the PlayStation 3, exclusively. Namco Bandai announced yesterday that Katamari Forever will be coming to the US this year. The game is a sort of tribute to all the games before it, featuring old levels and new levels alike in 1080P glory. The game boasts a new story, more cousins to find, remixed versions of classic tunes and even visual filters to alter the game's overall look. Katamari Forever sounds like a dream come true for Katamari fans and I had the chance to go eyes-on with a recent build and see what sort of trouble the King is causing this time.

Katamari Forever starts off with the King losing his memory after hitting his head on a planet (Oops!) The Prince and his cousins must work to rebuild the King's memories, but they build a robotic version of the King in the meantime to fill the void he left behind. Unfortunately, Robo King causes just as much trouble as his predecessor, so the Prince has quite a lot of work ahead of him.

I was already very impressed with the game from what I saw. Some of the levels in Katamari Forever have specialized objectives. For example, the first demoed level has no color to it in the beginning. As you roll over different objects, you unlock their color and begin sprucing up the locale with various shades of red, green and blue.

The second level on display was called Katamari Sprinkler and once again featured a special objective besides just rolling up environmental objects. In this level, the Prince and his Katamari ball begin in a small bath and must spread water over a barren wasteland. As you spread the water, flowers and ample amounts of vegetation spring up in your wake, rejuvenating the desert. The whole effect is charming and keeps in line with quirky Katamari tradition.

Another element to Katamari Forever is the inclusion of a hop, which can be executed by either jerking the Sixaxis controller upward or hitting one of the triggers. This makes traversing the stage much easier and adds yet another layer to the experience. But one of the most exciting aspect of Katamari Forever, easily, is rolling up the very planets in the galaxy, which will happen later in the game. That's right: the Katamari gets that big and it looks awesome.

I can't wait to get my hands on Katamari Forever. It looks like the perfect (albeit quirky) exclusive for Sony's current-gen console.